TRACES SPRING 2017 | Page 74

Jealous: In Defense of Ronald Weasley In the Harry Potter fandom, there are two characters that are hated most often. These two characters are Albus Dumbledore and Ronald “Ron” Weasley. I understand why people hate Dumbledore, even though I don’t. The hate for Ron, however, I find confusing. People say Ron was a lazy, stupid, rude, horrible friend and the movies didn’t help with that aspect, giving all of his best lines to Hermione. Whenever I hear others say this, I wonder whether they have read the books. One of the things that people hate most about Ron is the fact that he gets jealous easily. It’s one of his greatest flaws. However, people don’t realize the reasons for said jealousy. Ron grew up in a large family with five accomplished older brothers and a younger sister who was the first girl born in generations. He had no special talents other than his second- to-none abilities in chess and was often left in the background.